Category Archives: Chess For Beginners

During the last few weeks we have been learning basic tactics. In this post I’m going to change the pace a bit and write a few words on topics that I believe are overlooked in competitive activities. Besides chess I have several other hobbies. Many of these are hobbies that I have dedicated myself to […]

In my opinion these two tactics are overlooked and not studied in enough detail. Imagine that you’re in the middle of a tough chess match. You notice that you can make a strong capture or check, unfortunately however one of your own pieces is in the way. That’s where a clearance sacrifice comes into play. […]

In chess the discovered attack is one of the most important tactics. When we first begin playing chess we learn about simple threats. We attack one of our opponents pieces, and they defend. With a discovered attack we are creating two threats at one time. Since our opponent cannot defend against two attacks at the […]

As has been previously mentioned, most tournaments pair you with players of similar ratings. But what exactly IS a rating? What does it mean? How is it tabulated? Can YOU become a Grandmaster? A rating is a 3-4 digit number associated with a player to showcase their playing strength. The higher the number, the better […]

One of the best ways to improve your chess game is by playing at tournaments. It’s also fun and exciting (and from time to time profitable as well)! There are many kinds of chess tournaments one can enter depending on the age and rating (we’ll talk about ratings in a blog in the near future), […]

In the last blog, I covered mating with a King and Rook. The idea was to box in the opposing King into a smaller and smaller area of squares until in the end you use your king to take away his final square and checkmate with the Rook. We’re going to use a similar idea […]

Sooner or later in your chess games, you’re going to have to learn how to win with a limited number of pieces. It may even be down to you having 2 pieces (for the sake of this blog a King and a Rook) and your opponent is left with only 1 piece (a King). There […]

“The pin” is one of the most powerful tactics you can have in your arsenal of attacks. No, I’m not talking about putting anyone’s shoulders on the ground and there are no 3-counts. Think of chess more as a war game than anything else… and “the pin” is when you’re attacking so heavily that […]

“The Fork”, believe it or not, does NOT have anything to do with the widely used eating utensil! The fork, in chess, refers to when a piece is in a position that it threatens two pieces simultaneously. This may also include putting your opponent in check while attacking another piece (this is a highly effective […]

So you’ve played an awesome game and now it’s down to a King and Pawn(s) VS King (and Pawn(s)) endgame! Who will win? How can you figure out the win without making the moves? The answer to both questions is one word: COUNT! When you get down to just pawns, a lot of the time […]